With the discovery of more than 5,600 planets orbiting other stars and images from robots we have sent to all the planets in our solar system, it is becoming abundantly clear that Earth is unique among worlds. Almost all of the exoplanets scientists have discovered since the 1990s fall into four main types: gas giants like Jupiter … Read more
Cost of Living27:31Dead brands brought back to life One brand of clothing — specifically pants — has always had a special place in the closet of Alex Curry of Sexsmith, Alta., a small town about 20 kilometres north of Grand Prairie. “From high school, I loved Modrobes. I think from about Grade 7, I really noticed they … Read more
On the surface, Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer is the perfect target for adaptation. First off, it’s a novel — one of the more lucrative source materials for an industry perpetually hungry for existing IP and a built-in audience. Second, it’s a Pulitzer Prize winner, a badge of honour that already proved a boon for similar adaptees like Spotlight, Driving Miss … Read more
Our planet is changing. So is our journalism. Keep up with the latest news on our Climate and Environment page. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox every Thursday. This week: A Toronto school uncovered a buried stream and transformed its schoolyard A record-breaking solar highrise in Halifax Manitoba Food Rescue Grocery grows to save more … Read more
It was just after 8 a.m. when Gary Sutton and his crew spotted the signature black dorsal fins cutting through the cool waters of the Salish Sea, off the coast of Vancouver Island. More than a dozen Bigg’s killer whales, also known as transient killer whales, swimming north in search of food. They surfaced every few minutes, the spray of their … Read more
The natural world is full of gender diversity: female hyenas have pseudo penises used for sex and urination, many species of fish and plants change their sex over their lifespan, and female lions have been known to grow manes and develop a masculine growl. Those are among many examples in a new episode of CBC’s The Nature … Read more
6:39Scientists try to unravel the case of 1,300 mysteriously preserved human brains Oxford University’s Alexandra Morton-Hayward spends her days surrounded by brains — literally. The undertaker-turned-scientist is trying to unravel why some human brains remain remarkably well-preserved after death, sometimes for thousands of years, even when all other soft tissue has long decayed. And anyone … Read more
From his home office in West Yorkshire, England, Richard Hemsley flips through a folder of papers. He decides on one, then looks up. “I’ll read it to you, if I put my glasses on,” he says. When he’s adjusted his frames, he starts the letter of condolences about his grandfather, Lt. Francis Hemsley. “He was in … Read more
Quirks and Quarks17:24How documenting the disappearance of the great auk led to the discovery of extinction When species cease to exist, we often say they went “the way of the dodo.” But it might be more fitting to say they went “the way of the great auk” because it was the Icelandic bird’s disappearance that led to the discovery that … Read more
Federal authorities have closed Canada’s only known live coral reef in the Pacific Ocean to all commercial and recreational bottom-contact fishing. Fisheries and Oceans Canada says the indefinite closure came into effect on Feb. 14 for the Lophelia Reef, located in the Finlayson Channel of British Columbia’s Central Coast, about 500 kilometres northwest of Vancouver and 200 kilometres directly east of … Read more
